This paper develops a classical-Marxian macroeconomic model to examine the growth and distributional consequences of education. First, the role of education in skill formation is considered and it is shown that an expansion in education will promote growth and have beneficial distributional effects within the working class, but it will redistribute income from workers to capitalists. Second, the model is extended analyze the broader political economic consequences of education on class relations and class conflict. The model suggests the importance of a progressive type of education rather than one which weakens the power workers, for it allows for equitable growth outcomes which improve the position of workers as a whole and reduces inequality within workers. Finally, the model shows that education leads to multiple equilibria and it stresses the importance of providing suitable incentives to workers for taking advantage of greater education access, without which the economy can be caught in a low-skill trap.

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eng

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Univ. of Massachusetts, Dep. of Economics Amherst, Mass.

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Working Paper, University of Massachusetts, Department of Economics 2010-10